THE GOVERNMENT has decided that it intends to mount another offensive against the criminals. Full time to let them know (again) who is in charge... About time too. Citizens will agree. The daily atrocities are threatening to reduce to rubble everything that this nation has worked to build.

Our accomplishments, our achievements, the best that we are, seem to count as nothing in the face of the cruel tyranny of a faceless enemy who strikes at will.

Many people will tell you they can hardly bring themselves to listen to the news each day. Inevitably, it is crime which dominates, not the accomplishments of our people. As if that were not burden enough, there is also the grapevine - the underground news through which reports of sexual dysfunctions are relayed via the Internet for all the world to see that "wi head really tek wi". Add to all of that, the growing pain and anxiety being caused by the out-of-control food prices, gas prices, whatever, and you have to wonder if we really can make it, even though we try. So, the crime thing has to be dealt with urgently.

Wha fe do? The prime minister announced in Parliament Tuesday that it is being contemplated to adjust legislation which will permit the state to keep people of suspected criminal intent in detention for a time (currently unspecified) until charges can be brought against them. He also announced intentions to revise the Bail Act to give time to lay charges which will stick.

Incidentally, how many people realise that the PM's presentation, during what is still the sectoral debate, on Tuesday afternoon, was a parliamentary first? Those who know, remind us that while any member of the House may participate in any debate at any time, this is the first time in our parliamentary history that a prime minister has spoken in both the fiscal and the sectoral debates.

Part of the reason for this new departure comes from the fact that the minister of national security is not a member of the Lower House, nor is the junior minister, and so the PM assumed that responsibility. Whether or not this is the best way of doing things, is open to question.

AS TO BE EXPECTED, protectors of our human rights are not pleased at the intended curtailment of rights. For one, they say, it has been tried several times before and only served to make things worse. The dreaded words "State of Emergency" have not been uttered, but the denial of bail beyond the current 48 hours as well as prolonged detention brings back unwanted memories. We're in a terrible state yet again, and emergency surgery is clearly needed. Not everyone buys into the human rights objections. Citizens who feel beleaguered, set upon, robbed of their right to free movement, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, are impatient of any debate about any rights but their own. "Full time we fight back. Full time we let those bloodsuckers know we've had enough. Lock up dem backside and trow wey de key." These are very popular sentiments. People want revenge. They want to see criminals suffer, the same way they have hurt decent people.

A mild-mannered gentleman once shared with me his solution for dealing with the shottas. "Herd them into those big concrete pipes you see waiting to be sunk into the ground to carry off flood water. Pack them in, then seal both ends with concrete." He couldn't understand my horrified reaction.

The government is clearly counting on a favourable response from the public. The Opposition, not wishing to be left out, seems compliant. I listened to Opposition Spokesman for National Security Dr Peter Phillips on radio Tuesday afternoon, and when asked his opinion of the prime minister's announcement, he tried to say "Yes" and "No" at the same time.

He must have been reflecting on how "puss an' dawg nuh have de same luck". He must have recalled the ugly, acrimonious battles which ensued decades ago, when the PNP introduced the State of Emergency as a counter to the rash of political violence of the 70s and how those three words have haunted the party to this day. Times change but only Time will tell, if this time, things will remain the same.

In the discussion of the tactics which are to be used in the latest offensive, one buzz word is "fishing". Some call the proposed lock-dem-up strategy "fishing with a big net". Big nets, it is said, can catch little fish and big fish same time. Fishermen know too that the big ones can tear the nets and swim off to continue business as usual while the sprats are left for frying. What other wisdom will we gain from this new metaphor? Who will be the sprat and who the grouper?

THE THIRD Biennial Diaspora Conference has come and gone. I managed to be at the opening on Monday. I regret missing the two days of ideas-sharing. Above all, sorry I wasn't able to carry out my plan to sneak into the Pegasus for the after-dinner speech of Harry Belafonte on Tuesday night. His views are always interesting and challenging.
The conference passed a number of resolutions for action by 2010. Must say, some of the ones I read in the papers sound a little strange to me, especially those under the heading of "Church". Will have to visit them in more detail next week.

WHO SHOULD PAY? People are asking what was so special about Bahamian Jerry Butler, a member of the International Development Bank's Caribbean Committee/Commission, whatever, who refused to leave the luncheon given by Jamaica's prime minister for the visiting IDB head earlier this month and proceed to the airport to catch the afternoon flight to Miami. Butler had already been accorded special treatment of being checked in, way in advance.

Was it too much to ask that he got there in time for the flight? It's not every day you see a plane stopped like country bus to take on a late passenger. Somebody should lose dem work or refund the taxpayer... As if Air J wasn't bruck already.

gloudonb@yahoo.com

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